A chance discovery of World War II dog tags in the belongings of his late uncle led a Portage man on a journey to find the family of the man to whom they belonged.
CJ Miller wanted to honor his late uncle, Don Halford of Lake Station, by returning the tags to Donald Dykeman’s family, even though they’d spread across the United States after his death decades ago.
Halford most likely found the tags while scrapping a house, Miller said, but he didn’t explain before he died in 2015. Halford never served in the military, but Miller believed his uncle would have wanted the dog tags returned to the rightful family.
It was “such a symbolic thing for a lot of people,” Miller, 31, said. “Even if (Dykeman) didn’t die in combat, I think it still would be important to me to keep that in the family.”
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Forgotten link
The trail would lead to Gary’s Glen Park neighborhood where Dykeman and his artist wife Marie once lived at 4350 Madison St. and began to raise children until his death in 1951.
The dog tags’ only clues to Dykeman’s identity were his name, Army serial number — 0281320 – and next of kin address with an attached token that appeared to show he was once a Freemason. But clues to his life were revealed in military documents, Post-Tribune archives and an interview with extended family.
Born in Richmond, Ind., on Nov. 23, 1903, Donald Dykeman Sr. grew up in Gary, graduated from Emerson High School and attended DePauw University. He later briefly worked as a physical director for the YMCA and as a parole officer for the Lake County welfare department, according to a Post-Tribune article dated Nov. 19, 1951.
Military service records from the National Archives seem to indicate that Dykeman had military experience prior to World War II. He enlisted in the military briefly in September 1928 and received an honorable discharge in March 1929. The same documents appear to show that Dykeman also may have been a reservist for a decade from May 1931 to May 1941.
Dykeman joined the Army Air Force on active duty in 1942. According to his military separation papers and obituary, he served as a special service officer — or security officer — in the 8th Air Force under Gen. “Jimmy” Doolittle.
He saw combat in North Africa and Italy, participating in battles in North Africa, Tunisia, Sicily, Naples-Foggia, Rome-Arno and “Algeria-French Morocco.” He was awarded medals, including a European African Middle Eastern theater ribbon with six bronze service stars attached. Military records also show he received the Presidential Unit Citation. He was not wounded in combat.
Dykeman returned to the states by June 1944 and retired from the service as a first lieutenant in August 1946. Military documents list his former civilian occupation as “social worker.” His obituary states he worked for Heeter Motor Sales Company, was a welfare officer for the Glen Park American Legion post and “associate patron of Order of Eastern Stars, chapter 365,” a Masonic organization.
Father ‘hero-worshipped’
Dykeman died at Methodist Hospital two weeks after he suffered a heart attack when his step-grandson was killed by a Gary Railways Bus in Miller, according to the 1951 story.
He and Marie had a son, Donald Jr., who was 6 when his father died, and Marie had two daughters from a previous marriage. For years after his father’s death, Donald Dykeman Jr. kept two trunks full of mementos — mainly uniforms — of his father’s military service as a tribute to the man he never really got the chance to know.
“He definitely hero-worshipped his father,” said Melissa Anygus, the sister of Donald Jr.’s widow Christina, speaking as a family representative. “Of course, when you lose your dad so early, I think that was pretty common.”
When Donald Jr. died in 2007, his widow, now living in Florida, donated many of the items to the Veterans Administration, said Anygus, who still lives in Northwest Indiana and kept some of her sister’s possessions in her house. Online county property records show Dykeman Jr. continued to own the house on Madison Street until the 1980s.
Anygus remembers the Dykeman home as a warm and vibrant place filled with Marie’s paintings and having a rock garden near the sidewalk.
“One of my first memories when Chris and Don got married was going to that house in Gary,” she said. Marie “had beautiful pictures all over the house, including a life-sized painting” of her husband.
The neighborhood has fallen on tough times and according to 2016 property records, the former Dykeman home and property was assessed at $36,000. Houses on both sides appear to be vacant.
Anygus can’t recall any discussion over the missing dog tags, but she thanks Miller for his efforts to return a nearly forgotten piece of family history.
Decisions linger
Anygus expects to be in contact with Miller and will attempt to track down the elder Dykeman’s nieces — who may now be in their 70s — or see if the Memorial Garden near the Old North Church in Boston might accept the tags.
Last year on a visit, she was deeply touched by a display there where at least 6,884 blank dog tags have been hung in multiple clothesline-style rows to honor service members killed in Iraq, Afghanistan and other war zones since 2001.
The garden’s executive director said he would not be able to accept the tags because the display is primarily focused on post-9/11 conflicts and the tags are blank, allowing visitors to take one home as a souvenir without guilt..
“It wouldn’t be practical for us to accept them,” Steve Ayres said.
As word of Miller’s search circulated on social media last month, the Porter County Museum expressed interest in the dog tags. The museum houses an extensive collection of World-War II-era artifacts.
“We would be happy to take them,” said museum Coordinator Megan Telligman.
She also suggested other Lake County organizations, such as the Calumet Regional Archives at Indiana University Northwest in Gary, might be interested. Curator Steve McShane could not be immediately reached.
“Every week, something new is donated to us,” Telligman said. “It’s a lot of people going through garages” finding items that “hold enough memory and story that (they are) not going to throw away.
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“That should go somewhere they can continue to tell that story,” she said.
Twitter: @meredithcolias